For the last 6 months I've been playing bass in a garage band. We play classic rock just for fun. We're pretty good but not good enough, if you know what I mean. We practice in the drummer's living room about once a week. There's just me on bass with a 50 watt practice amp, the electic guitar player with his medium sized amp, the drummer, and two people singing through a small PA. After about 45 minutes it's too f*#$ing loud. I keep asking the guys to put more energy into playing with precision and less energy into their volume level. They don't want to do that . . . . . . dude

. My ears feel stuffed up the next day, and they *buzz* the day after that. I wear ear plugs when we practice now.
The last few "professional" concerts that I attended were so loud that I wished they would end about half way through. I take ear plugs to those kind of events now. One venue actually passed them out before the show started. That was nice of them.
The last couple of movies I've seen were way too loud for me too. I guess that's what the public expects for their eight dollars.
What ever happened to resolving the quiet end of the dynamic range and listening at a lower average level? I own a pair of 9 watt single ended triode monoblocks. They cost me way too many dollars per watt, but I can listen to them all day long and never get tired of putting
just one more record on. The music they make is mesmerizing.
I hate it when it's time to turn them off.